When the Going Gets Hot!

Summer's over, vacation-wise, and not a day too soon. Which is to say, my family got out of Black Butte yesterday only an hour or two ahead of the official evacuation order....see also: Oregonlive stories about the GW forest fire....and so we roared off into our immediate autumnal futures in the shadow of USFS choppers and airplanes, with smoke pluming overhead and flames on the not-distant horizon.

And if that doesn't make you want to go into the TV room and lock the freaking door, here are a few national disaster-caliber incidents from recent PAC family vacations:

New York City, August, 2003: See also: the east coast blackout. No power in the city means no subway, no refrigeration, extremely limited food options. Also no AC, which is saying something in NYC in August.

Beaverkill Valley, Catskill Mountains, July 2006: See also: Heavy rains and resulting floods. Nearest town to us, Livingston Manor, NY, was so specatcularly flooded -- think Venice-in-the-mountains, with stuff floating away -- the whole scene turned up on the front page of the NY Times. Crazy!

Close but no disaster: Belize, August 2007: We left about 72 hours before Hurricane Dean arrived.

So I'm definitely ready for school to begin. Work, too. And so welcome to the fall remiere season. And what a September it'll be, with literally dozens of premieres on network and cable, plus also the Emmy Awards, plus also Ken Burns's "The War." And a whole new Oregonian arts section web presence to boot! How cool is that? I dunno...but we're all supposed to know in about two weeks.

What's up now: the ongoing "Kid Nation" controversies. Now...surprise, surprise...it seems that CBS producers fed extra-cool lines of dialogue to the supposedly un-scripted, definitely underage-to-be-working-that-hard tots. So what are we to make of the waves of contro that keep hitting this show? I think it puts the show (and its producers and network) walking the razor line between extreme opportunity and extreme disaster. To wit:

1. All this advance hype/controversy/hatred is only going to drive more viewers to the show. When the TCA press tour session for this show devolved into a heated exchange about the child labor issue, you could practically see the CBS execs doing cartwheels of joy: Virtually all the coverage would (and then did) lead with a blow-by-blow description of the action. Headlines, pictures, the works. Imagine how much it would cost to buy that kind of coverage.

2. So heat is good. But only to an extent. Because if it gets too hot -- e.g., more parents report injuries/abuse/etc -- then the buzz could get so bad it actually blows the show to pieces.

Right now it could still go either way. "Kid Nation" could be the hottest new reality show of the year. Or else it won't even air.

Swag Report!

Speaking of new reality shows: CMT has a new reality show about the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. And while hot, scantily-dressed women are usually high on my list of must-sees, I tend to lose interest when pom-poms enter the mix. Don't ask me why, that's just how I roll. But still, it's strangely beguiling to see that last week's mail included not one, but TWO hand-written (I swear) postcards from actual DCC's, both imploring me (in charmingly girlish handwriting) to tune in on Sept 14, and forever after, too. Both women thank me in advance for the coverage and support, but while Kandi Harris addresses yrs truly with a traditional "Dear Peter," her colleague Miko Bagley goes for a less-intimate, and yet strangely compelling "Dear Mr. Media Man." But here's the rub: Ms. Bagley turns out NOT to be the winsome brunette pictured on the front of the card. No, that's Tobie Percaval, who apparently doesn't write cards to critics. Or maybe she does, but just not to me. Either way, I'm one disappointed Mr. Media Man, that's for sure.